Suicide Prozac 02/06/2000 Utah 14 Year Old Boy Commits Suicide
Summary:
http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/AC/04/transcripts/4006T1.doc
DR. RUDORFER: Thank you.
Our next speaker, Number 12, please.
Dawn Rider
MS. RIDER: My name is Dawn Rider and I am
here to tell you my story, and I represent, as
president of ASPIRE, more than 11,000 persons who
are all named on the Eli Lilly and Prozac petition,
which a copy has been given to the panel.
We have been educated to believe that
mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders are
caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. The
fact is that this is only theory, and this theory
is pushed on us as if it were the absolute truth.
The reality is that the best of scientists
do not completely understand the complex inner
actions of the myriad chemicals in our brains.
Those of us who elect to believe this theory and
subject ourselves to treatment become guinea pigs
in an ongoing experiment.
I know this from personal experience. I
trusted our family doctor when he explained that
depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. We
trusted him when he determined that Paxil was right
for my husband, and Prozac for my son.
We weren't educated enough at that time to
ask him to provide us with the test results that
proved which chemicals were being balanced.
I am not going to go into details of what
happened to our family. I have given you all
documentation, it's very painful. Suffice it to
say that my beautiful 14-year-old son is now dead,
and when we discovered the problems with these
drugs, we decided it would be better for my husband
to suffer through depression than end up dead like
our son, and we found out that he could not get off
of Paxil.
He went through over a year of hell before
he was able to finally withdraw from the drug, and
in the process it destroyed our marriage of over 20
years.
I say with no apology whatsoever that
these SSRI drugs destroyed what was once a loving
and vibrant family. Why do we believe that street
drugs like heroin and LSD can lead to outcomes such
as this, yet, we won't accept that legally
prescribed drugs, working on the same
neurochemicals, can result in horrific crimes
against persons and property?
Why do we accept that a drug like
penicillin, beneficial as it is for some, can prove
fatal for others? We fail to accept that these
drugs can have paradoxical effects. These drugs
are not safe for everyone.
They should be labeled with the strongest
of precautions and dispensed only by trained
physicians who have time to adequately monitor the
patient. Most doctors do not have time for this
level of care.
Also, patients should be required to sign
letters of informed consent. Please carefully
consider the documentation that I have left with
you and look at the faces of those that are here
today and the faces that out in the hall, those
children who cannot speak for themselves because
they are dead. They are not merely anecdotal
evidences.
There is a preponderance of evidence that
will be presented before you today. Please
consider it carefully and do the right thing.
Thank you.
DR. RUDORFER: Thank you.